Current Events Pharmaceuticals

Fighting Obesity by Popping Pills?

Drug-makers have had little success gaining FDA-approval for diet pills.  According to The Economist:

It has been 13 years since the FDA approved a prescription diet pill. That drug, Roche’s Xenical, has notorious gastrointestinal side-effects. The FDA rejected Vivus’s Qnexa in 2010 over concerns for the safety of pregnant women and the quickening of patients’ heart rates.

This may soon change…or maybe not:

A committee advising America’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommended that it approve Vivus’s diet drug, Qnexa. However, the pill’s long-awaited final approval may not come until April, if at all. The announcement mostly served as a reminder of what a struggle it is to turn fat into gold.

Diet and exercise are the key to losing weight.  Pills can make you lose weight, but with what side-effects?  Remember that cigarettes are a well-known appetite suppressant, but you don’t see doctors prescribing obese individuals a pack of Marlboros.

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